SOUTH KOREA
Energy shortage faced
The country’s president has turned down the thermostat in his office and donned warmer underwear to save energy, he said yesterday, urging fellow citizens to do the same to avoid a supply shortage. The warmer underwear was initially uncomfortable, President Lee Myung-bak said in a fortnightly radio address. “But after a while, I got used to it, and now I am very warm and comfortable wearing it,” he said. Lee said the country faces an uphill battle to meet fast-rising electricity demand and could face an emergency this winter. He urged people to turn down the temperature in homes and offices, switch off unnecessary lights and use high-efficiency appliances. In September, unseasonably high temperatures caused brief but widespread rolling blackouts that hit more than 2 million homes or other premises. Officials said they had to cut off supplies because electricity reserves were too low. This month, the government announced a series of power-saving measures to take effect during the normally severe winter. Big consumers will have to cut power consumption by 10 percent compared with a year earlier during peak days that will be announced later.
PHILIPPINES
Bomb kills three, wounds 27
Suspected Islamic militants detonated a powerful bomb that killed at least three people and wounded 27 in a budget hotel packed with wedding guests in the south, officials said yesterday. Investigators believe the blast and ensuing fire that gutted the two-story Atilano Pension House in downtown Zamboanga City late on Sunday was a terrorist strike and that it was not linked to the wedding, Zamboanga Police Director Edwin de Ocampo said. Still, many of the victims were from a group of more than 20 people who occupied six of the hotel’s 35 rooms for a planned ceremony. The tragedy forced the wedding to be postponed, Zamboanga Mayor Celso Lobregat said. The blast was believed to be one of two simultaneous bombings planned by Abu Sayyaff militants. The other would have been on nearby Basilan Island, where two explosives were separately found and safely defused by authorities in Isabela City on Sunday.
BELGIUM
Cabinet might be named
The country might have a government next week, the country’s chief negotiator in charge of forming a Cabinet, Elio Di Rupo, said on Sunday, after political parties clinched a deal on next year’s budget under pressure from rising borrowing costs. The budget agreement was seen as the last major obstacle to forming a government among six parties and came hours after ratings agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded Belgium’s credit to “AA” from “AA+,” pressing the country to act. The country has set a modern-day record for being without a formal government. It has been about a year-and-a-half since elections were held last June and the lack of a government at a time of bond market turmoil was one of the reasons it was downgraded.
MEXICO
UNESCO lists mariachi music
The country celebrated on Sunday as mariachi music was named to UNESCO’s list of “intangible cultural heritage” in need of preservation. The announcement will help to enhance the traditional music that has become an emblem of the country, according to a statement from the National Institute of History and Anthropology. The music was among the new entries chosen by envoys at a meeting in Indonesia to be inscribed on the UN cultural agency’s list of intangible heritage items.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was